Ashleigh Heaton
Editor-in-Chief

Yahoo! recently posted an article on 5 life lessons from high school movies. Not only is everything there very true (and who can’t love the Ferris Bueller reference?) it got me to thinking…what about other movies? Sure, there are plenty of morally unsound movies out there, but there are some recent films that actually have good messages. So here’s my personal list:

1. Pride and Prejudice: Don’t be quick to judge others.
Yeah, yeah, so you can argue that this is really a book…but, seeing as I saw the movie before I became obsessed with the literature, I’m including it. And what’s not to love of Keira Knightley’s performance?

2. (500) Days of Summer: Love is not a fairytale.
Most of the time, I go to see romantic comedies to see the whole “boy meets girls, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back” scenario, but I was pleasantly surprised with Summer. Because it didn’t turn out like you wanted it to (like most relationships do,) it gave truth to modern relationships and stripped away the old Hollywood myths of conventional love.

3. The Karate Kid: True strength is not in your muscles.
Wax on, wax off.

4. Up: Getting older doesn’t mean you have to let go of the fun of youth.
Though this film was odd (to say the least) to me upon first viewing, it grew on me. And, truly, I could have put any Disney and Pixar film on this list, considering they all have wonderful messages.

5. The Nanny Diaries: Parenting is not a hands-off experience.
It’s sad how heavily parents rely on their nannies to raise their children – so much so that I sometimes don’t even consider them to be parents. Luckily, Mrs. X realizes this by the end and shapes up.

What do you think? Did I miss anything on your list? Do you agree or disagree?